San Diego  The manager of a now defunct medical marijuana dispensary in San Diego was convicted Tuesday of three charges of illegal possession and sales of marijuana.

Jovan Jackson, 32, faces up to six years in prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 27. But the case, which was closely followed in the medical marijuana community, isn’t over.

Jackson’s lawyer, Lance Rogers, said he would appeal the verdict, focusing on a pretrial ruling by Superior Court Judge Howard Shore. The judge ruled that Jackson, who managed the Answerdam Alternative Care dispensary in Kearny Mesa, could not use the state’s medical marijuana law as a defense at the trial.

Shore concluded the law could not apply to Jackson because there was not enough evidence in the case to show the main purpose of Answerdam was cultivation of pot. The state’s medical marijuana law protects people from prosecution for cultivating the drug — not distributing it.

The conviction was a victory for the District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ office, which has had difficulty earning jury convictions in previous medical marijuana trials. Jackson was acquitted last year of similar charges in a trial where a different judge allowed the medical marijuana defense.

Prosecutor Chris Lindberg said outside of court that he welcomed the jury’s verdict. Jackson’s conduct exceeded the boundaries of the medical marijuana law. He was doing little more than running a “retail marijuana store,” Lindberg said.

The law does not protect that kind of conduct, he said.

The charges stem from an investigation in July and September 2009 when police obtained marijuana from the collective during undercover buys.

Unable to use the medical marijuana defense, Rogers argued during the trial there was no direct evidence linking Jackson to those sales.

Jackson, a Navy veteran, read a statement outside of court saying he was disappointed at the verdict but vowed to press the appeal. He said he felt “pity and anger” at prosecutors for aggressively pursuing the case against him and other medical marijuana defendants.

Rogers said that jurors told him afterward they were reluctant to convict Jackson but had no choice under the legal instructions they were told to follow.